IRVING — Jason Garrett talked for more than 26 minutes
Wednesday without taking a question or, as far as anyone could tell, a breath.
Then he fielded questions for about 26 minutes more, exhausting the gathered
media in the process, but never conceding that he has lost the play-calling
duties to Bill Callahan.

And maybe, he hasn’t. Maybe at the end of these long off-season deliberations
as to how offensive plays will be dispatched to Tony Romo in 2013, Garrett will
remain the play-caller.

That seems highly unlikely at this point. Garrett would have been unlikely to
put such a happy face on his willingness to delegate the role down the line to
Callahan if he were going to emerge from an off-season of change at Valley Ranch
as the offensive play-caller.

But there’s one thing the Cowboys’ head coach is right about. When I asked if
he feels we make too much of how the plays are called, Garrett said yes. And if
it’s a simple transference of duties from Garrett to Callahan while both, along
with other offensive coaches, are designing game plans, I wouldn’t look for
drastic changes in how the Dallas offense looks and operates this fall.

“Bill wouldn’t be on this staff if we didn’t have shared values,” Garrett
said.

Besides, think about this for a second. On a number of plays — an
increasingly larger number each season, it seems — Romo goes to the line of
scrimmage with options as to which play to run based on the look of the
defense.

In that sense, it is more of the “collective” process that Garrett talks
about than we give it credit for being.

Garrett insisted that the final decision on who calls plays will be his. But
having spoken enough in the past about his desire to be the play-caller, the
closest Garrett came to conceding that this may be a Jerry Jones decision was
this explanation for why a change could be made.

“Every decision we make is in the best interests of the football team,”
Garrett said.

In other words, he’s willing to go along if that’s what Jones insists needs
to be done. I mean Garrett’s rationale for not changing a year ago was, “We
thought it would be a disservice if we drastically changed the structure of how
we do things.”

And yet, change now is just part of an ongoing 2 1/2-year process?

Regardless, Garrett said there are no more new faces coming to the offensive
staff, so if you hoped someone from the 49ers was being hustled to Valley Ranch
in order for Romo to come out in the “Pistol” offense against the Giants, you’re
in for a disappointment.

Mostly what Garrett’s filibuster was about was the sense that the significant
changes made since season’s end have been a product of Garrett’s desire to
rebuild the staff to his own liking.

In his version of what’s going on, Garrett spent the 2004 season, his last as
a backup quarterback, picking the brains of the Tampa Bay staff. He called it
the “graduate school” of his career, and Garrett said he asked many, many
questions of the Bucs’ defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, defensive line coach
Rod Marinelli and special teams coach Rich Bisaccia.

All three are now key members of Garrett’s staff (or Jones’ staff, depending
upon your level of cynicism this morning). He praised Kiffin’s “demand for
detail in practice” and said Marinelli is one of the most dynamic speakers he
has ever heard.

“We feel great about our staff,” Garrett said.

Those who view Cowboys head coaches as mere puppets for Jones won’t entertain
the idea that Garrett can ever speak with sincerity. But, realistically, given
the backgrounds of these coaches compared to those he inherited overnight when
Wade Phillips was fired, this is more of a Garrett staff than it used to be.

But I don’t think Garrett is doing more than coming to grips with Jones’
decision to have someone else call plays. That’s based on how much Garrett has
pointed to the success of Super Bowl winners Sean Payton (Saints) and Mike
McCarthy (Packers) as play-calling head coaches in the past. He mentioned them
again Wednesday but included a disclaimer of “there are compelling arguments on
both sides.”

Only a lover of long shots would bet that the compelling argument to have
someone call plays other than the head coach is going to lose at Valley Ranch
this off-season.

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About Tim Cowlishaw

Tim Cowlishaw has been The Dallas Morning News' lead sports columnist since July 1998. Prior to that he covered the Cowboys for six seasons and the Stars for three as a beat reporter. He also covered the Rangers as a backup beat writer and was the San Jose Mercury News' beat writer on the San Francisco Giants in the late 1980s.

Tim has been appearing regularly on ESPN"s "Around the Horn" since the show made its debut in November 2002. He also worked with ESPN as part of the network's "NASCAR Now" coverage in 2007-08.

Favorite Dallas restaurants: Park, Nick and Sam's, Kenichi.

Worst sports prediction: His first in college ... that Earl Campbell had no shot at the Heisman Trophy.

Best sports memories: Seeing the Dallas Stars hoist the Stanley Cup long after midnight in Buffalo, watching the Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl and Texas win the national title in perfect Rose Bowl settings.